Obama’s Approval Ratings Rise, Campaign to Reform as Advocacy Group

President Obama arrives for a news conference at the White House last week. Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters.

President Obama will begin the final weekend of his first term with support among Americans at its highest levels since he took office in 2009, but voters have high expectations for what he can deliver in a second.

A new survey from the Pew Research Center found that Mr. Obama “faces a far more skeptical and frustrated public today than he did four years ago,” and that while 33 percent say he will be a successful commander in chief over the long haul, 26 percent say he will be unsuccessful. Most surveyed do not see a future of bipartisan cooperation in Washington.

Mr. Obama has a 52 percent job approval rating in the poll, conducted of 1,502 adults Jan. 9 through last Sunday.

Pew found Mr. Obama with personal favorability ratings of 59 percent and higher percentages of people viewing him as a “strong leader, able to get things done and as someone who stands up for his beliefs.”

Pew found that while Mr. Obama’s personal image remains strong, his job approval “is not high compared with other two-term presidents since World War II.”

Among presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, only George W. Bush began his second term with a rating about as low as Obama’s (50% approval in January 2005). To a degree, this reflects the partisan polarization in opinions about both Obama and Bush; Obama’s current rating among Republicans (14% approve) is about the same as Bush’s among Democrats eight years ago (17%).

The poll ahead of the inauguration dropped as word came that the Obama campaign apparatus will live on in a new form.

The Los Angeles Times’ Matea Gold reports that some details will become public Friday, before the official relaunch on Sunday. “Run by former Obama campaign officials, the advocacy group will seek to leverage the campaign’s sophisticated organizing tools and rich voter database to support the president’s policy objectives, including raising the debt ceiling, gun control and immigration reform,” Gold writes.

Former campaign manager Jim Messina will be the national chair, Politico reports. Here’s more:

As a 501(c)4 group, the new Obama organization will be separate and different from Priorities USA, the Obama-backing super PAC that could accept unlimited financial contributions in support of his re-election campaign. Despite high-profile backing from top Obama aides and allies including former President Bill Clinton, Priorities foundered compared to groups backing GOP rival Mitt Romney.

Priorities officials did not respond to request for comments about the group’s future.

But unlike a super PAC, the new nonprofit will be able to accept anonymous contributions. The nonprofit could voluntarily choose to release the names of donors — but such disclosure is not mandated by the Internal Revenue Service or the Federal Election Commission. There are no contribution caps on what donors are allowed to give to 501(c)4 groups.

Organizing for America had a similar intent and had mixed reviews over the duration of Mr. Obama’s first term. Of course, it was more of a campaign shop in waiting.

The Pew poll found that politically, Mr. Obama has an advantage over Republican leaders on Capitol Hill. The GOP has fallen to 33 percent favorability, the lowest point in the last two decades of Pew surveys.

The NewsHour will have robust coverage of this weekend’s events and Monday’s inaugural ceremony, both on air and online. Tune in Friday night for our first report on the preparations and analysis from Mark Shields and David Brooks.

Craigslist and eBay have agreed to work with congressional inauguration planners to stop the sale of tickets for the event. Tickets that were meant to be free to the public have been posted on these websites for thousands of dollars, according to the joint congressional committee overseeing the ceremony. Its chair, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had pushed for the crackdown.